BJ 1481 I 
.H65 





Class :___ 

Book. 



Copyright^ , 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 






The Pursuit 

of 

Happiness 




JLe-<ru^ Stlr&^o 



The Pursuit 

OF 

Happiness 



By 

George Hodges 



With frontispiece portrait 




New York 
Doubleday, Page & Company 

MCMVI 




i 



LIBRARY of CONl- 
Two C»oies Received 

JUL 80 1906 

Cmyright Entry 
-» ^S d* XXc, No, 




^v& 



Copyright, 1906, by 

doubleday, page & company 

Published, September, 1906 



All rights reserved, 

including that of translation into foreign languages, 

including the Scandinavian 



THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. 



J. S. H. 



THE PURSUIT OF 
HAPPINESS 

PART I 



The Pursuit of Happiness 



PART I 

I PURPOSE to consider certain 
helps to happiness. Of these the 
first is Determination. I mean the 
will to be happy. 

For happiness is largely an interior 
matter. " I have learned/' says the 
heroine in " As the World Goes By," 
" that happiness is subjective ; it does 
not depend on any particular environ- 
ment. It depends solely upon our 
relation to the great currents of life. 
If we resist, there is friction and 
distress ; if we fling ourselves boldly 
into the eternal tides, we are swept into 
every form of beauty and of truth." 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

It does not mean that we should 
try to attain that sort of content 
which lets the world go by without 
an effort to change it for the better. 
One time, in an old story, the doctor 
told the king that the only thing 
which could cure him was to wear 
the shirt of a contented man. So 
they searched the kingdom with 
candles, hunting for a completely 
contented citizen. But at last, when 
they found one, the man had never 
a shirt to his back. We ought not 
to applaud that sort of sanctity. 
The content which is satisfied to 
button its coat about its chin for 
lack of a shirt is but a species of 
indolence. When ill conditions may 
be changed, it is the imperative 
business of all good people to be 

JO 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

persistently discontented until they 
change them. 

But there are ill conditions which, 
at least for the moment, are beyond 
change. There they are, and here 
are we in the midst of them ; they 
will not depart, and we cannot get 
out. Under such circumstances, the 
thing to do is to let the eternal 
tides carry us whithersoever they 
will. The evil is upon us, and it 
is now our business to make the 
best of it. The testimony of long 
and varied experience is that the best 
of it is often very good indeed. 

I have in mind, for example, the 
fact of sickness. We are cast upon 
our backs, aching and forlorn. The 
initial duty, indeed, is stout resist- 
ance. For a determined will can 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

conquer pain — some kinds of pain. 
It can actually tread it under foot, 
" But I have tried it," somebody 
says, " and it does n't work ; it 
does n't relieve me. I am afraid 
that I have n't the right kind of 
will." Perhaps not. But when Ad- 
miral Dupont gave Admiral Farra- 
gut half a dozen excellent reasons 
why he did not take his gun-boats into 
Charleston harbor, — cc There was 
another reason," said Farragut ; " you 
did n't believe that you could do it." 
Granted, however, that it does not 
work, what then ? Then determi- 
nation passes from resistance to wel- 
come, holding out hands of greeting. 
Here is a great human experience, 
an elemental fact of universal life, 
and into it we enter. Others, who 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

have made trial of it before us, have 
found it beneficial to the soul, a 
source of spiritual strength. It has 
taught them lessons in patience, in 
sympathy, in appreciation of bless- 
ings hitherto undervalued. They 
have come out better than they went 
in, saying with all honesty, " It is 
good for me that I have been in 
trouble." This which they have 
gained from sickness I will gain also. 
I will compel it. If I cannot put 
it to flight, I will take it captive 
and bring it into the service of my 
soul. 

Thus determination deals with pain 
as Jacob dealt with the angel. Why 
did Jacob wrestle with the angel ? 
Was it for exercise, in the chill of 
the frosty morning? Was it for joy 

*3 



(C 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

of mastery ? It was for the purpose 
of compulsion. The angel had a 
blessing, and Jacob wanted it. He 
fought for it. The angel tried to 
get away, but Jacob held him fast. 

I will not let thee go," he said, 
"except thou bless me." 

Determination wrests a blessing, 
as from sickness so from every other 
ill of life. Thus it deals with dis- 
appointment, with disaster, even with 
bereavement. 

The quality of life depends upon 
determination. It is actually what 
we make it. " The event itself," 
says Maeterlinck, "is pure water 
that flows from the pitcher of fate, 
and seldom has it either savor or 
perfume or color. But even as the 
soul may be wherein it seeks shelter, 

*4 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

so will the event become joyous or 
sad, become tender or hateful, be- 
come deadly or quick with life." 
And the words of Marcus Aurelius 
follow, like the prayer after the 
sermon, " Everything is harmonious 
with me which is harmonious with 
thee, O universe. Nothing is too 
early or too late, which is in due 
time for thee." 

Several homely resolutions bring 
these high thoughts out of the 
clouds, as the lightning descended 
along the string of Franklin's kite. 

We may resolve to be silent. In 
the midst of trouble we will at least 
keep our mouths shut. We will not 
complain, we will not cry aloud, we 
will not increase the general burden by 
the weight of our individual distress. 

*5 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

We may also resolve to keep a 
cheerful countenance. For not only 
does the will affect the body but the 
body affects the will. The boy who 
goes on past the dark corner in the 
dead of night, whistling to keep his 
courage up, is engaged in a valid 
psychological process. His whistling 
is efficacious ; it does maintain his 
courage. Thus a serene face helps 
to make a serene soul ; a smile on 
the lips induces a smile in the heart. 
The despondent person who left off 
taking medicine, and laughed every 
day for five minutes before each 
meal, got well. The first day or 
two, the laughter sounded, as it says 
in the proverb, like the crackling of 
thorns under a pot, but it became 
the real thing. Anyway, look cheer- 

16 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

fill, no matter how you feel. Be 
decorative, even if for the moment 
you cannot be useful. 

To these two resolves, one for the 
lips, the other for the face, may be 
added a third for the eyes. Look 
steadily on the bright side of life. 
Cultivate the grace of a good hope. 
Imitate the fine optimism of him of 
whom it is said that he could see 
stars where his neighbors saw only 
an unbroken expanse of cloud. 

The story of the Perfect Joy, in 
the " Little Flowers of St. Francis '* 
is a parable of determination winning 
happiness in the face of adversity. 
Francis and Leo were going along 
the road, weary with a long journey, 
pelted by a cold rain, Francis be- 
hind, Leo before. And Francis said: 

2 I 7 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

" O Brother Leo, if we were able 
to work miracles, so that we could 
make the blind to see and raise the 
four-days' dead, that would not be 
the perfect joy." So they went a 
little farther, and Francis said, " O 
Brother Leo, if we knew all lan- 
guages, even the language of the soul, 
that would not be the perfect joy." 
And on they went, and Francis said, 
" O Brother Leo, if we understood 
the courses of the stars, and the vir- 
tues of the plants, and were able to 
discover all the treasures of the earth, 
that would not be the perfect joy." 
Still, Leo made no comment, and 
on they trudged under the cold sky. 
And Francis said : " O Brother Leo, 
if we could preach so well that our 
sermons would convert all unbeliev- 

18 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

ers, that would not be the perfect 
joy." Then Brother Leo said : 
" Father, I pray you in God's name 
tell me in what consists the perfect 
joy." To which Francis answered, 
" We are to spend the night at St. 
Mary-of-the-Angels. We are tired 
and wet and cold and hungry. Sup- 
pose that on our arrival we knock 
at the monastery door, and the por- 
ter who opens it does not know us. 
c We are your brothers/ we say. 
c Away ! ' he cries ; c you are two 
tramps, you would impose upon our 
hospitality. Begone ! ' And so he 
shuts the door, leaving us in the 
wet, shivering and starved. Then 
if we patiently endure all this 
without complaint or murmuring, 
possessing our souls in peace, we 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

enter, Brother Leo, into the perfect 
joy." 

One need not be a saint to see 
that this is true. The perfect joy is 
the mastery of adverse circumstances 
by the serene acceptance of them as 
the will of God. For, as Piccarda 
Donati instructs Dante in Paradise, 
cc His will is our peace." To recog- 
nize that, to appreciate it, to realize it, 
to enter into a bitter experience with 
cheerful expectation, to wrestle with it 
till it yields its blessing, this is to find 
indeed the Perfect Joy, and to be at 
peace in the midst of tribulation. 



PART II 



PART II 

JL HE second mile-stone on the way 
to happiness is Regulation. Thus 
shall determination be brought to 
immediate and concrete effect. 

For a general resolution is like a 
general invitation. It does not call 
for a reply. The proper answer to 
the question, " Will you not come 
some day and dine at my house ? " 
is " Thank you very much/' and 
that is the end of it. The usual 
sequence of a resolution to be better, 
without details, is a passing glow of 
self-satisfaction, followed by the same 
behavior as before. The thing means 
nothing. It is a mere drift of moral 
mist, blown by the vagrant wind. In 

23 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

order to amount to anything, it must 
have dimensions and angles and clear 
definition. 

You may command the sun to 
stand still, like the eager captain in 
the Book of Joshua, but the sun will 
pay no attention whatever until you 
specify precisely what you mean. 
" Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon ; 
and thou, Moon, in the valley of 
Ajalon." You must put in the top- 
ographical details. When you do 
that, you will have sunshine every 
day and moonshine every night, 
until you weary of fair weather. 

What I mean is this. The first 
step toward happiness is to deter- 
mine to be happy. The second, 
without which the first may be of 
no avail, is to determine how to be 
24 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

happy. How shall we so order our 
days that our life shall yield the 
Harvest of Happiness ? In order 
to reap a Harvest of Happiness, it is 
necessary to plow the ground and 
harrow it, and put the seeds in and 
pull the weeds out. The garden 
will never be made to grow by sit- 
ting on the back steps and reading 
the Garden Magazine. Or, to put 
it in another way, how shall we 
achieve serenity of spirit? How 
shall we approach, ever more near 
as the years pass, to the perfection 
of peace ? There is a peace such 
as the Israelites had in Egypt. Its 
principal treasures, as they them- 
selves confessed, were cucumbers and 
melons and leeks and onions and 
garlic. It was the peace of a people 

*5 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

who had been conquered by their 
enemies and brought into a state of 
slavery. But true peace can be had 
only by victory. He had it perfectly 
of whom F Jt was said, after He had 
triumphed over temptation, " Angels 
came and ministered unto Him." 

The name of one of the enemies 
of our peace is Hurry, the name of 
another is Worry. They are both 
of them put out and kept out by 
regulation. 

Hurry spoils both the quality of 
the work, and the temper of the 
worker. For the best work depends 
on personality. It is done well or 
ill, according to the condition of our 
nerves. No kind of profession or 
occupation can go on permanently 
and prosperously under the patron- 

26 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

age of St. Vitus. I have not much 
admiration for the Sisters of St. 
Martha. They are " practical " per- 
sons, unwarmed and unlighted by 
the fires of idealism, and everlast- 
ingly busy ; too busy to do some 
of the things which are most worth 
while in life. But I have still less 
pleasure in the Brothers of St. Vitus, 
whose only holiday is a month off 
every year or two in order to have 
nervous prostration. 

"They went so fast that at last 
they seemed to skim through the 
air, hardly touching the ground with 
their feet, till suddenly, just as Alice 
was getting quite exhausted, they 
stopped, and she found herself sitting 
on the ground, breathless and giddy. 

" The Queen propped her up 

27 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

against a tree, and said, kindly : 
c You may rest a little now/ 

cc Alice looked round her in great 
surprise. c Why, I do believe we 've 
been under this tree the whole time ! 
Everything 's just as it was/ 

" c Of course it is/ said the Queen. 
c What would you have it ? ' 

"'Well, in our country/ said 
Alice, still panting a little, c you 'd 
generally get to somewhere else — 
if you ran very fast for a long time, 
as we Ve been doing.' 

" c A slow sort of country/ said 
the Queen. c Now, here> you see, it 
takes all the running you can do to 
keep in the same place/ ' 

It would make a good inscrip- 
tion for the title-page of Baedeker's 
United States. 

28 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

Brothers and sisters, it is n't nec- 
essary, all this frantic haste. We 
are accomplishing no more there- 
by than our more leisurely neigh- 
bors. We would not need to 
hurry, if our work were definitely 
planned. The remedy is in regula- 
tion. 

And then comes Worry. Hurry 
is the unresting demon of the par- 
able, who goes out and brings in 
seven other spirits worse than him- 
self. These seven are Worry. I 
mean the petty perplexities and 
annoyances, the consciousness of 
defect, the anticipation of defeat, 
which clog the wheels of life as the 
mire of the Red Sea tugged at the 
chariots of Egypt. For worry is in 
great part the pain of the burden 

29 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

of duties undone. People are worn 
out not by the things which they 
do, but by the things which they do 
not; the calls which are not made, 
the books which are not read, the 
stitches which are not taken, the 
letters which are not begun — these 
are the evil spirits which give us 
sleepless nights. Not one of them 
can live in the atmosphere of regu- 
lation. They flee before a system- 
atic ordering of life, as mice flee 
before the cat. 

That is, the wise man who de- 
sires serenity and satisfaction will set 
about achieving them in the same 
sensible fashion in which he under- 
takes the erection of a house. He 
will draw up specifications. He will 
say to himself, " This is the sort of 

30 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

thing I want, and thus and so will 
I do to get it." This requires a 
pencil and a piece of paper. It 
means a table of hours in which is 
set down at the beginning the mo- 
ment when each day shall dawn — 
each waking and working day — and 
the moment when the shining sun 
shall be dismissed from its post of 
service over the heights of Gibeon. 
It means a clear understanding be- 
tween the clock and the conscience. 

" There is a time/' says the writer 
of Ecclesiastes, cc to every purpose 
under the heaven." " God," he 
adds, cc hath made everything beau- 
tiful in his time." The deed, in 
order to be beautiful, in order to 
be a help to happiness, must be 
done " in his time " ; that is, in the 

3* 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

part of the busy day to which it 
properly belongs. 

What, then, ought I to do to 
keep my body strong and alert? 
Very well, that shall be one of my 
concrete resolutions. Every day, at 
such and such specified times, I will 
do this and that. 

So with my mind. What books 
shall I read daily, and at what time 
of day ? 

So with my soul. What do I 
mean by my soul ? I mean that 
which acts in imagination, in affec- 
tion, in the perception of the unseen. 
Domestic happiness, the pleasure of 
pictures, of music, and of poetry, and 
the worship of God are joys which 
have their residence in the soul. 
The uncultivated soul goes stum- 
s' 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

bling about in beautiful places, 
knocking itself against the corners, 
and missing the best of life, and it 
is true of the soul, as it is of the 
garden, that its cultivation, in order 
to be successful, must be seriously 
and systematically undertaken. 

That is what I mean by regula- 
tion. The victories of life are won, 
for the most part, in the Japanese 
manner, by pre-arrangement. 



33 



PART III 



PART III 

AMONG the qualities which will 
assist us to be happy, the third is 
Proportion. 

By proportion I mean a true 
perspective. The effect of perspec- 
tive is to magnify the size, and there- 
fore the apparent importance of 
that which is in the foreground. 
Dr. Grenfell, in the deep sea off the 
coast of Labrador, took a photo- 
graph of an iceberg and a ship. The 
picture showed an enormous ice- 
berg, through which you looked by 
a great arched opening and saw a 
little ship. Then he had the ship 
brought around in front of the berg 
and photographed the two again ; 



37 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

and now, behold, a splendid, stately 
ship, across whose deck you saw a 
piece of floating ice. Whatever is 
put in the foreground is bound 
to look big and to dominate the 
picture. And whatever is put in 
the background will look small, no 
matter what will be its actual di- 
mensions. The thing to do, then, 
is to keep in the foreground of our 
interest that which is most worth 
while, and to relegate that which is 
unimportant to the dim background 
of the mind. If you think about 
it, and think about it, it will grow. 
That is what I mean. If you 
don't want it to grow, don't think 
about it. 

By proportion I mean also a true 
perception of value. Value is meas- 

3* 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

ured and determined by utility ; not 
by utility in the common or garden 
sense, unless one include the flower 
garden — but by utility as imply- 
ing recognition and appreciation and 
adoption, that being accounted the 
most useful which enters most help- 
fully and happily into life. One 
time, little children in South Africa 
were playing jackstones in the street 
with shining pebbles which were 
afterward discovered to be diamonds. 
As jackstones, they were nothing 
but jackstones, to toss up in the 
air and catch, if possible, on the 
back of the hand. That was all 
that the children knew about them. 
Then came along a wise man who 
perceived that those sharp-angled 
stones were gems, worthy to adorn 

39 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

kings' crowns. The barefooted chil- 
dren, with holes in the knees of their 
trousers, went home after their game 
to eat the tough meat of poverty, 
having vast riches in their pockets 
but remaining poor because they did 
not know the value of their posses- 
sions. That which Socrates said of 
wickedness is quite true of a great 
deal of unhappiness ; he said that 
the root of the matter is ignorance. 
The most lamentable poverty is that 
of the people who are poor in the 
midst of riches, like the ship's crew 
in the mouth of the Amazon, per- 
ishing of thirst, not knowing that 
all the water in which they floated, 
fathom upon fathom, was fresh and 
sweet as the water of the well of 
Bethlehem. Diamonds of shining 

40 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

joy lie glittering in every common 
highway, but most of the passers-by 
only stub their toes against them. 
To perceive the true value of things, 
to see the difference between a 
cobblestone and a Kohinoor, is 
a great part of the secret of satis- 
faction. 

Proportion ministers to happiness 
because it restrains us from the 
exaggeration of excitement. They 
who lack it are like the newspapers 
which have used up all their biggest 
type in screaming bulletins of fights 
of petty ruffians in back alleys, and 
have nothing higher for a battle 
which is determining the destiny of 
nations. It is well to distinguish 
between a scratch and a surgical 
operation. It is well to save the 

41 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

supreme emotions for the supreme 
event. 

I do not mean an unnatural 
repression of feeling or of speech. 
I think that when " home they 
brought her warrior dead," she 
should have cried. That was a 
time for tears. I do not applaud 
the pioneer in the old story, who 
coming home and finding his house 
burned by the Indians, and his wife 
and children carried into captivity 
said : " This is perfectly ridiculous." 
The occasion demanded stronger 
language. The truth is, however, 
that the great joys and the great 
sorrows come but seldom. Let us 
not get excited every common day. 
Let us reserve some stirrings of the 
heart, as Izaak Walton reserved cer- 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

tain sweet landscapes for holy days. 
Even the great indignations summon 
us but rarely. Let us keep for them 
the elaboration and pomp and cere- 
mony of our wrath. There is one 
kind of appropriate anger for the 
child who steals a ginger-cake and 
quite another for the legislator who 
steals a street. We invite unhap- 
piness by getting mad at the wrong 
times. At the sight of this exagger- 
ated indignation, the serene sky, the 
tranquil fields and the staid earth 
silently rebuke us, saying : " Little 
brother, little sister, why so hot ? ' 
Even our grief is sometimes like the 
tears of infancy. We are like children 
from whom something is withheld or 
withdrawn, the possession of which 
would be a peril or a pain. Think 

43 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

again ; set it in its true proportion ; 
can you not get along without it ? 

Proportion ministers to happiness 
because it preserves us from pessi- 
mism. Pessimism is an exaggera- 
tion of the evil of the world. It is 
the easiest of fallacies. Evil im- 
presses the imagination deeper than 
good. It is commonly more dra- 
matic, commonly more interesting. 
That is why the first page of the 
morning paper is filled with the 
stories of yesterday's suicides, mur- 
ders and divorces. These tragic 
matters do not make up the greater 
part of life. They do not fairly 
represent the human day. On the 
contrary, they are the infrequent 
exception. Life, for the most part, 
goes on clear and peaceful. But 

44 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

these loud cries attract an instinctive 
attention. The pessimist transfers 
this emphasis of evil from journalism 
to philosophy, sometimes to religion, 
and imagines himself in a vale of 
mystery. But it all depends on 
where one looks. The general 
world is at this day, and always has 
been, a good world. In spite of all 
the wars and in the face of all the 
injustice and oppression and of the 
resulting want and pain, this is, on 
the whole, a pleasant planet, and the 
great majority of us are glad that we 
came here to live. Dr. Grenfell 
says that one day the cook used ar- 
senic instead of baking powder ; they 
looked alike in the dim morning. 
And everybody who ate the bread 
fell sick. That, however, did not 

45 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

destroy their faith in the general ex- 
cellence of bread. When they got 
well they went on eating bread. For 
it is only on rare occasions that the 
cook poisons the loaf. The pessi- 
mist finds a bitter crust and there- 
upon declares that all the bread of 
human life is bad. But if we have 
any sense of proportion, we know 
better. 

Proportion ministers to happiness 
because it saves us from the ills of 
premonition. It helps us to dis- 
tinguish between the substance and 
the shadow, between the actual to- 
day and the possible to-morrow. 
Most of us are able to sympathize 
with the man who said : " I have 
suffered much from many calamities, 
few of which ever happened." Take 

4 6 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

out of life the fear of the future, the 
anticipation of disaster, the ills which 
live only in the imagination ; and the 
habit of enduring distress times, and 
the clouds are cleared from the sky, 
the sun shines through. The in- 
dubitable testimony of experience is 
this, that the event which we dread 
is very rarely so bad as we fear. To 
the timid passenger on the top of the 
coach, the road ahead seems to go 
down hill as if it fell over a straight 
cliff, but it is presently found to 
proceed in a gentle and altogether 
safe descent. All the reason for ter- 
ror was an imagination. The sui- 
cidal angle was not in the hill, but 
in the mind of the traveller. The 
sense of proportion — magnifying the 
known, minimizing the unknown — 

47 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

strong, wholesome, reasonable, and 
serene, corrects all this and confines 
the evil to the day itself, declining 
with a smile to borrow any from the 
morrow. 



4 8 



PART IV 



PART IV 

A HE fourth corner on the High- 
way of Happiness is the gift of 
Vision. 

Vision means imagination, rescued 
from the service of the devil and be- 
come the handmaid of felicity. She 
leads us, like Ariadne in the old 
story, out of the labyrinth of our 
perplexity. We escape for the mo- 
ment from adverse conditions into 
other and happier surroundings. In 
the " Arabian Nights " this journey 
was assisted by a magic carpet, on 
which one stepped, declared at what 
pleasant haven he desired to be, and 
immediately was there. To-day this 
is effected by a book. 

51 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

The opening of the pages of a 
good book is like the opening of 
gates into another world, into the 
gardens of delight. There for the 
time we live, and if we have any 
misery and sorrow, we forget them. 
Happy are they who have entered 
into the mystical freemasonry of 
letters, whose initiation is the learn- 
ing of the alphabet, whose novitiate 
is spent in schoolrooms, to whose 
meetings the members are bidden by 
the advertisements of the publishers, 
and whose colors are the black and 
white of print and paper. 

Thoughtful people have always 
refused to be contented with the 
world as it is. Though the heaven 
be never so high, and the horizon 
never so far, they have felt them- 

5* 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

selves confined and imprisoned. 
That which satisfies and exceeds the 
body cramps the soul. This world 
is not enough ; there must be an- 
other, into whose lofty mansions the 
human spirit may escape out of 
these narrow ways and from under 
these low ceilings. And into this 
other world, accordingly, the soul 
has made its journey,, sometimes 
guided by the priest, sometimes 
by the poet, sometimes by the 
teller of tales, always aided by 
imagination, and often finding the 
open door between the covers of a 
book. 

When Thoreau said that to im- 
prove the quality of the day is the 
first of arts, this was what he meant. 
He had in mind that dignifying of 

53 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

the day which is achieved when the 
common life is held in relation with 
all the environment of mystery ; the 
seen with the unseen, the temporary 
with the eternal, earth with heaven. 
The quality of the day determines 
the joy of the day. It is the same 
commonplace day that it was yester- 
day, and may be to-morrow, and to 
your neighbor it begins and ends in 
dulness ; but this is all upon the 
surface. They who have the gift of 
vision look beneath this wrapping, 
and behold, the day shines like a 
star. Then we understand that the 
new heaven and the new earth which 
are promised to the faithful are just 
our ordinary blue sky and green 
grass seen with a new sight. 

To begin the day with a page of 

54 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

a great book opens the eyes of the 
soul. They used to read the Bible 
before breakfast. That habit is not 
so common now, I suppose, as once 
it was; but it is an excellent habit, 
proceeding from good sense as well 
as from piety, and worth reviving 
and maintaining. To begin the 
crowded day with a moment of sweet 
peace, attending to the message of 
the still, small voice, which speaks in 
those sacred pages as it has spoken 
now to more than thirty restless cen- 
turies, is to enter upon the round of 
duty with a benediction. Professor 
Shaler says that when his work took 
him into a mine, he used to stand 
for a few minutes at the top of the 
shaft and look at the sky and the 
sun, and breathe the breath of 

55 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

the fresh morning. Then he went 
down into the dark and the bad air, 
in the cheer and the strength of that 
vision of the good world. Our days, 
I hope, are not to be likened to the 
black corridors of a mine, but that 
draught of light, that swift compre- 
hensive circumspection of the world, 
ought to be a fair symbol of our 
morning prayer and of the page of 
the book. And if the day is' dark, 
and the contrary winds buffet us 
about, and we feel as if the pit had 
indeed shut her mouth upon us, 
then we may remember, like a miner, 
that nevertheless the sun is shining; 
we saw it in its splendor early in the 
morning. 

The Bible will give us that endur- 
ing vision, and so will all the other 

56 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

bibles. I mean the books which 
speak straight to our souls ; the 
poems which we have put to the 
test of experience, the great sentences 
in which in truth the Holy Spirit 
summons our spirit; the volumes on 
whose worn covers, as they lie on 
our table, rest little tongues of pen- 
tecostal flame. 

Books however, are not enough. 
The book is closed, and we go 
out into the world. What we need 
is the transformation of the world. 
That, too, comes by vision. For 
vision means interpretation. 

Imagination implies an element of 
unreality, but interpretation is un- 
derstanding. We see not only an- 
other world, but this present planet 
with the sun and the stars shining 

57 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

upon it. The prophet and his ser- 
vant stand in the midst of enemies. 
Whichever way they look, nothing 
is seen but the advancing lances 
of the besiegers. And the servant 
is terrified exceedingly. Then the 
prophet prays that the young man's 
eyes may be opened, and behold, all 
the surrounding hills are crowded, 
rank upon rank, with the embattled 
hosts of heaven. That is what I 
mean. It is by vision that the 
whole world is glorified, and we per- 
ceive that our life is lived in the 
midst of an environment which is 
the appropriate setting of the jewel 
of great joy. 

The gift of vision helps us to be 
happy because it enables us to look 
through the visible into the invisible. 

5* 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

It brings us into the society of 
the mystics, whose poet is Words- 
worth, and whose apostle is St. John, 
who see that this world of brown 
and green and blue, embroidered 
with flowers and painted with sun- 
sets, is of a truth the garment of 
God. Then we go about our daily 
business conscious of God, abiding 
in His presence, and thereafter the 
divine is natural and the natural is 
divine, and we know what he meant 
who said : " In Him we live and 
move and have our being." And the 
familiar experiences of the common 
day are touched with beauty, so that 
it is like taking a post of oak with the 
bark on, and smoothing and shaping 
it, and carving it from top to bottom 
with the story of a saint. 

59 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

Vision helps us to be happy 
because it also enables us to look 
through the present into the future. 

It blesses the scholar, who labors 
day by day at tasks which his neigh- 
bors neither appreciate nor under- 
stand, because he sees away off down 
this road the vision of the truth. 
It blesses the reformer, who endures 
contradiction and braves disappoint- 
ment, and, apparently accomplish- 
ing nothing, is nevertheless confident 
and full of courage, because he is 
engaged in the service of his ideal ; 
every sordid detail is illuminated by 
the shining of that sun. 

Thus it is also with us, who are 
neither scholars nor reformers, but 
plain citizens and neighbors. We 
have stood with Christian and Hope- 

60 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

ful on the heights of the Delectable 
Mountains, and have seen in the 
dim distance the gates of the Celes- 
tial City. Now all the weariness of 
the way is lightened by that sight. 
Christian and Hopeful had but a 
faint vision of the future. When 
they looked through the perspective 
glass, their hands shook so that 
they could see nothing clearly. " Yet 
they thought they saw something 
like the gate, and also some of the 
glory of the same." At least, they 
knew where the road ended. 

It comes out at last, all this diffi- 
cult way of life, into the blessed 
light. They who have the gift of 
vision see that, and are certain that 
the journey is worth while. 



61 



PART V 



PART V 

iN OBODY can be happy in any 
large way unless to determination and 
regulation and proportion and vision 
he adds the habit of Ministration. 

For happiness is a social matter. 
People have sometimes carried it 
away for their own private delight, 
but they have never succeeded in 
keeping it. It has always behaved 
as in the fairy tales, where the gold 
and gems of selfishness are changed 
into brown stones and withered 
leaves. 

I do not mean to say that nobody 
can be happy all alone ; for that 
would be in contradiction to com- 
mon experience. There is a joy in 

5 65 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

solitude. What I mean is that no- 
body can be happy very long in any 
selfish solitude. It is true that some 
of the most precious joys of life come 
to us in quiet moments when we have 
no companion but a book, or a green 
hill, or an expanse of shining water, 
or the sound of meditative music, or 
the consciousness of the divine pres- 
ence ; but when we undertake to pro- 
long this high pleasure in order to 
make it the chief occupation of our 
time, we find that the quality of it 
changes like the flavor of a cup of 
water which is taken from a brook. 
At the moment, it is like the nectar 
which the Greek gods quaffed on 
Olympus ; but at the end of the day, 
it is not fit to drink. It needs the 
motion of the general current; as 

66 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

every human being needs the impulse 
of the general life. 

St. Peter, on the top of the house 
at midday, has his shining hour. 
He sees a vision and hears words 
out of the sky. But there is a knock 
at the door below, and three men are 
asking if this is Peter's lodgings, and 
the saint must come down and go 
about their business. There is a 
time to see visions and a time to do 
errands. In Peter's case, the vision 
was for the sake of the errand. It 
interpreted the summons of the three 
men, and prepared Peter to obey it. 
The joy of the individual is always 
related in some such way to the joy 
of the community. It has its flower 
and its fruit in social service, without 
which it is a barren stalk. So in the 

6 7 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

Legend Beautiful — where an angel 
appears in the midst of the monk's 
prayers, and then the bell rings which 
calls him to his accustomed work — 
he hesitates between the angel and 
the errand. But when he returns, 
having done his common task, the 
vision says : " Hadst thou stayed, I 
must have fled." 

Among those who listened to St. 
Paul at Athens were certain philoso- 
phers called Epicureans. They were 
applying themselves with all dili- 
gence to the attainment of happiness. 
Their only business was to have a 
good time. Being philosophers, they 
had easily discovered that there is a 
great difference between a good time 
which lasts for half a day, and a good 
time which continues on, shining with 

68 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

a steady light, into the far future. 
They had accordingly rejected some 
of the applicants for the position of 
Pleasure Maker. They had decided, 
for example, that appetite, while it 
has its place in the scheme of a 
good life, is not a satisfactory pur- 
veyor of joy. They lived on barley 
bread and water, and, when they had 
company, added only a bit of cyth- 
nian cheese. But they had no proper 
place in their philosophy for min- 
istration. They were selfish persons. 
And the result was that they failed 
in their high endeavor. 

The best known Epicurean in 
modern fiction is Tito in " Romola." 
There he lived, intent on pleasure, 
bound to get it, no matter at what 
cost to his friends and neighbors. 

6 9 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

At the sight of pain or grief, he 
turned away, lest he should sully the 
fair surface of his own delight. He 
did not wish his acquaintances to 
suffer ; indeed, he honestly preferred 
that they should live in peace. But 
his one chief aim in life was to main- 
tain the serenity of his own soul. 

Then in time of tremendous stress 
and strain in Florence, when every- 
body was vehemently taking sides, 
he prudently took both sides and 
betrayed each to the other, in order 
that he might be safe. He would 
not have applauded the sentiment 
that there are occasions when "'tis 
man's perdition to be safe." Finally, 
after breaking the hearts of his best 
friends, he perished miserably. He 
was pursuing a selfish happiness ; and 

7 o 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

in the unalterable grammar of life, 
that adjective and that noun may not 
be used together. 

The same conclusion is stated in 
another way by those who say that 
happiness can be attained only by 
indirection ; that is, by seeking some- 
thing else. It eludes those who pur- 
sue it for its own sake. Stevenson 
speaks of the " great task of happi- 
ness," but nobody ever accomplished 
it as a task. It is a quality of life 
rather than an occupation. Happi- 
ness depends on helpfulness as health 
depends on air and food — because 
we are made that way. They who 
minister to their neighbors exercise 
one of the normal human functions, 
and enter thereby into the joy of a 
larger life. The shining hour shines 

7* 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

by reflected light, getting a great part 
of its glory from the illuminated faces 
of good friends. 

Ministration is a help to happi- 
ness because it widens out the circle 
of interest. In the old story of 
" Eyes and No Eyes/' No Eyes 
comes back from a long walk, bored 
and weary, having done nothing for 
several hours but to set one foot be- 
fore the other along a dusty road. 
But Eyes has found the monotonous 
highway an avenue of adventure ; on 
this side and on that, birds, trees, and 
people have taken his attention. It 
is another illustration of the fact that 
happiness is an interior matter, an 
attitude toward life, depending on 
the individual soul. They who are 
intent on ministration, looking for 

7% 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

opportunities to be of service to their 
neighbors, find the dullest places in- 
teresting. For the world is pretty 
well populated with people, even in 
the remotest rural districts, and they 
are all players in the universal hu- 
man comedy or tragedy. Definitely 
to set about the betterment of any 
community or of any individual in 
it, is to enter into the company of 
all saints and statesmen, and to sit 
in the senate of philosophers. For 
all the problems which confront 
churches and nations are to be met 
in Lonelyville. The smallest village 
affords room for long and adventur- 
ous voyages of discovery. The whole 
human race inhabits it. Thoreau 
said that he had travelled extensively 
— in Concord ! 

73 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

Ministration keeps happiness be- 
cause it increases the area of affec- 
tion. It takes off the chill of the 
cold world. It is an essential con- 
dition of satisfactory friendships, 
wherein one gives and takes ; but 
first, gives. It justifies and con- 
firms the great words, " Give, and 
it shall be given unto you, good 
measure, pressed down, and shaken 
together, and running over, shall 
men give into your bosom." For 
they who are forever looking out 
for their own interests are commonly 
left by their neighbors in exclusive 
charge of that department. It is 
being so well cared for that nobody 
presumes to interfere. They who 
are serving others find themselves 
generously served by others. Their 

74 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

affection wins affection. The selfish 
person prefers his own company and 
walks by himself and wonders why 
he has no friends. The unselfish 
person lives in an environment 
of happiness, surrounded by those 
whom he has helped to be happy, 
and who in return are endeavoring 
to bring happiness to him. 



75 



PART VI 



PART VI 

JL HAVE now considered five ex- 
pedients for the attainment of happi- 
ness : First, Determination, whereby 
we resolutely set ourselves to go 
that way ; then, Regulation, whereby 
our good resolve is translated into 
definite action ; thirdly, Proportion, 
whereby we see to it that the rule 
of our life, thus made, is in true per- 
spective ; fourthly, Vision, whereby 
we are enabled so to judge of things 
as to know the true perspective when 
we see it. Then I spoke of Minis- 
tration. And thus I come, finally, 
to speak of Religion. 

These two, ministration and re- 
ligion, are not so much expedients 

79 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

for the increase of happiness as qual- 
ities of life on which happiness de- 
pends. They are represented by the 
two commandments which sum up 
all the law and the prophets. 

Before I come, however, to dis- 
cuss the place of religion in the 
scheme of happiness, let me answer 
the question of any who may still 
ask, Are we doing right when we 
put the emphasis of life on the side 
of pleasure ? Is the pursuit of hap- 
piness a Christian occupation ? 

Some, instructed by a strict con- 
science, have appeared to answer this 
question with a stout denial. They 
have distrusted the virtue of a happy 
life, and have spoken in disparage- 
ment of smiling saints. According 
to their notion, a saint must never 

80 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

smile, unless he does so in a pensive 
or pathetic manner. He may smile 
in the midst of pain as a sign of his 
spiritual superiority to the vexations 
of the body, but he may not smile 
because he is amused. In this se- 
rious world, a consistent saint will 
never be amused. As for laughter, 
that is the perilous privilege of sin- 
ners. (See Eccles. vii. 3.) "Sorrow 
is better than laughter : for by the 
sadness of the countenance the heart 
is made better/' Thus, I have seen 
a letter in which Lowell wrote to 
Starr King, " Providence at first in- 
tended me for a preacher, but spoiled 
the job by kneading in a quantity of 
humor." Deliberately, then, to un- 
dertake the quest of happiness, to re- 
solve to enter frankly and freely into 

6 81 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

the joys of life, is not this an earthly, 
sensual and possibly a devilish ad- 
venture ? It is true that the Bible 
speaks approvingly of a merry heart ; 
but ought we not to interpret that 
bold adjective by St. Paul's advice, 
" If any be merry, let him sing 
psalms " ? That, according to some, 
is the extreme limit of allowable jubi- 
lation. The number of such persons, 
however, has greatly diminished. 

Not only is there a change in the 
estimate of the part which pleasure 
may properly play in a good life, but 
as we examine the matter we find a 
further change in the estimate of the 
quality of pleasure. Indeed, it is 
here that the difference chiefly lies 
between conflicting theories of life. 
Mankind has always pursued pleas- 
82 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

ure. In spite of their theories, their 
protestations, even their sincere be- 
liefs, men have ever been intent on 
pleasure. They have differed mainly 
in their definition of happiness. For 
happiness is discovered in many un- 
suspected places. 

John Henry Newman confessed 
that in his youth he " loved the gar- 
ish day." When he wrote " Lead, 
kindly light," he had changed his 
mind. He had not, however, aban- 
doned his pursuit of pleasure. Now 
he desired to 

" Make the face of heaven so fine 
That all the world will be in love with night, 
And pay no worship to the garish sun." 

But Juliet said that, and she was 
by no means a serious person. One 
is in love with day, another with 

83 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

night, but both are in pursuit of 
happiness. 

In New England, a good while 
ago, they used to ask young people 
if they were willing to be damned 
for the glory of God. If they said 
that they were, they let them join the 
church. That seems about as far 
as one can go in the renunciation 
of all joy, both in this world and 
in that which is to come. But the 
truth is that this was only a very 
subtle and difficult form of joy itself. 
The New England saints were hon- 
estly convinced that nothing could 
be so full of secret satisfaction as 
to be everlastingly miserable for the 
glory of God. That was their con- 
ception of the Perfect Joy. For 
happiness, rightly understood, is the 

8 4 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

most desirable and the most impor- 
tant thing in life. To be thoroughly 
and abidingly happy is not only to 
get what we all instinctively desire, 
but to fulfil the purpose of our 
nature. 

Thus I come, at last, to religion, 
the nature of which is to fill the soul 
with pure joy, now and forever. 

I know that religion has some- 
times seemed to hinder happiness. 
It has taught the terror of the Lord, 
and has gone about with a stern face, 
frowning on the jubilance of youth. 
But even this has been for the sake 
of sincere felicity. It has been a de- 
bate between the Epicurean and the 
Stoic, each of whom has his own idea 
of satisfaction. Morton, of Merry- 
mount, and Winthrop, of Boston, 

85 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

had each his own way of enjoying 
life. And the honest truth is that 
the Puritan got more solid happiness 
out of his sober life than his hilari- 
ous neighbor. It is the business of 
religion to consider what kind of 
happiness is of an enduring quality 
and to distinguish it sharply from 
the delusive happiness which leads 
only to a headache or a heartache. 
This may sometimes have been done 
without just discrimination, but it is 
better to have it done bunglingly 
than not at all. 

In the face of all petty vexations 
and complaints of the rigors of reli- 
gion, let us remember Paul and Silas 
in the inner dungeon of the Philippi 
jail, singing songs for gladness of 
heart; and with them a great multi- 

86 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

tude, which no man can number, 
some of them with haloes and 
some without, to whom religion has 
brought light in the darkness. They 
were in pain of body or of mind, 
hopelessly remote from any of those 
paths to happiness along which peo- 
ple go when skies are fair and walk- 
ing is good. The floods had come, 
the waves and storms had gone over 
them. Then this path opened, with 
crosses for guide posts. Into it they 
entered, and on it led, through all 
manner of tribulation, even through 
the valley of the shadow of death, 
into joy unspeakable and full of 
glory. 

Religion ministers to happiness 
because it means revelation. 

It answers our imperative ques- 

87 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

tions. One may, indeed, go on a 
long way in a serene life without 
the interposition of importunate 
questions. But sooner or later they 
stop every traveller, like the sphinx 
in the old story, and the reply, or 
even the lack of a reply, means light 
or darkness, success or failure, joy or 
sorrow. Is this world governed by 
God ? Is God our Father, or our 
enemy, or is He indifferent to us ? 
And after death what then ? These 
are imperative questions. When 
they arise in the soul, they must 
be answered. 

But nature has no clear reply ; 
even human experience has no clear 
reply ; even the words of the spirit- 
ual masters, Plato and Paul and the 
others, the apostles, the prophets, 

tore. 88 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

the philosophers, the poets, the men 
whose souls are sensitive to the voice 
inaudible — even their words carry 
conviction only to those who are 
convinced already, " Lord," said 
the disciples, " to whom shall we 
go ? " And they solved their own 
problem, turning to the Master, say- 
ing, cc Thou hast the words of eternal 
life." That is, they found the im- 
perative questions answered in the 
words of Him of whom Unitarians 
say that He was a man filled with 
God, and of whom Trinitarians say 
that He was God filling a man, and 
of whom all agree that He brought 
life and immortality to light. There 
He stands, in the midst of all the 
creeds and the churches, and the 
confusion of old controversies, assur- 

8 9 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

ing us, with the serene confidence of 
One who knows, that God is, and is 
good, and intends good here and 
hereafter. That is the substantial 
basis both of faith and joy. 

Religion ministers to happiness 
because it means redemption. 

It delivers us from our besetting 
sins. The sting of life is sin. The 
cloud which drifts between us and 
the sun, darkening the shining hour, 
is the cloud of our own transgres- 
sions. And from this, religion de- 
livers us. It is a fact which both 
eludes understanding and defies de- 
nial, like the cures which are effected 
by the physician. It is an evident 
phenomenon enacted within our ob- 
servation, if not within our own ex- 
perience. By religion, sinners have 

9 o 



THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS 

been changed to saints, and plain 
people have been rescued out of self- 
ishness and overmastering temptation 
into newness of life. Thus religion 
brings with it a joy of its own. It 
has its own characteristic felicity, like 
books and art and music and achieve- 
ment. This felicity passes definition, 
but they who have entered into it 
know how precious it is. They are 
poor who lack it. They who pos- 
sess it are enriched beyond the ac- 
counting of imagination. 

For the supreme joy is to be in 
free and congenial relationship with 
life. And religion is the completion 
of it. Here the circle of satisfaction 
comes round. Here the pursuit of 
happiness ends in perfect possession. 



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JUL 30 1906 



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